After heart attack comes the finals...

I don't need to tell everyone all the same stuff that everyone else already has. The match was ridiculous and I'm still not positive that we won. I'm still waiting for someone to come to me and say that the match isn't over and that we need to go back to Copenhagen to play the rest of it. We essentially lost (down 24-21 with Jacob passing) and won (Toke blocking at 14-12) before actually winning the match. It was a great experience, one that I will remember for a long time, but I'm not entirely sure that I could take it if I had to do it again, say...tomorrow. Luckily, we're in the finals and we can now focus on getting ready for Friday.

I'm glad that we finally got to play a match where both teams could say afterward that they played at a high level. I'm sure it doesn't make up for losing, but with the way that Gentofte played yesterday, it has to take some of the sting out of it. When you perform the way you want to and your opponent does the same it is hard to be too down about losing. And obviously, there was very little that separated us from each other yesterday, one ball goes the other way and we're going back to Marienlyst to play again tomorrow.

As far as what happened after the match, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, things were intense and I have said before that I personally have no problem with trash talking. If you really think about it, yesterday's match was probably one of the best in a long time in Denmark, it was also one of the most "talkative" matches I have been a part of since being here. If nothing else, the talking contributed to the intensity of the volleyball. So, in that sense, I loved it.

On the other hand (And please remember this is just my feeling on the subject), in my mind, there is a certain art to trash talking. The people who are really good at it have a way of making it entertaining, funny, cool and effective. Rarely does it get personal and rarely does it have to do with anything more than the sport at hand. I mean otherwise, you're not really trash talking, you're just talking shit about someone to their face. And I think what got out of hand yesterday is that a lot of things were said that would NEVER be said off the court and to someone's face. From both sides.

Obviously there is no need to get physical about it, but let's just remember there is no need to keep talking after the match is over. And this isn't to sound like a "tough guy" but if you do persist on talking after the match then you have to also be willing to stand by what you say, it was intense and that meant that any number of reactions could have occurred. I didn't hear what was said, and I honestly don't know who started the whole thing, I'd imagine both sides are guilty, so let's just put it all behind us and stop taking everything so personally.

Hats off to Gentofte and to the crowd yesterday, thanks for making the match a classic. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in a third and deciding match...